Joan Kwiatkowski: a role model for giving

For Joan Kwiatkowski (SSW’85), the skills she learned at Boston University School of Social Work (SSW) have been the foundation of a successful career as a healthcare administrator and entrepreneur.

Recently named the first chair of the Dean’s Advisory Board at SSW, Kwiatkowski serves as the chief
executive officer of the PACE program, a non-profit integrated-care model serving adults 55 and older who have chronic health needs and want to live at home. Kwiatkowski developed the first PACE site in Rhode Island and recently served as the National PACE Association’s board chair.

To be a successful CEO, she says, she has drawn on her SSW coursework and training in facilitating groups.

“Many of the techniques that one uses in facilitating teams, in getting staff to work toward a goal and in supporting the mission of the organization are based in really good group work,” she says.

A generous supporter of BU, she established a fellowship fund at SSW in 2015 and recently added a bequest intention for the School of Social Work. Kwiatkowski, credits her SSW training with helping her “craft a career that was the right thing for me.”

“BU gave me the skills to be successful,” she says. “To the extent that I can give, and be a role model for others to encourage them to give, I’m happy to do it.”